Over The Falls
by The Wizard of Koz
Summary: Isabelle Darby thinks about the summer she turned 18 and her life fell apart. It was also the summer a Son of Anarchy broke her heart.
1. Chapter 1

Call me sick or crazy or whatever but I like hospitals. No matter what was turning to shit in your life you could guarantee someone else in these enormous buildings was 10 times worse off.

Dread's weighing me down man, making every step I tread like my toes are made of led. Seeing your father shouldn't fill a person with such dread but my father fills most people with dread.

I'm not afraid of him though, he's raised his hand to me once but stopped with a fraction of an inch to spare. I probably should be. That was the last time we spoke. The last time I saw him was two months ago at my grandma's funeral. I feel bad not seeing her in 4 years...or is it 5? Life's got kind of blurry. Anyway I regret not coming to see her when she was diagnosed with lung cancer, I called a lot but I didn't want to risk a confrontation with my dad.

This is an opportunity I couldn't let pass by. We're both stubborn as hell, wouldn't dare to be the first to make contact, so when St Thomas contacted me as his next of kin and said he'd been admitted with server burns I knew immediately that he needed me whether we liked it or not. All of the contact with none of the apologies. Plus it's a legitimate reason to get out of Malibu for a while, hubby's lawyers are getting nasty, like they didn't write the damn pre-nup themselves.

I came to the door the receptionist directed me too. When I told her I was here for Ernest Darby she gave the once over, maybe looking for my White Hate ink. He's sleeping. He's, like, at maximum level un-scary when he's sleeping.

I don't know how long I hung out in the doorway watching him sleep, my mind ventures elsewhere, to happier times.

"_Hey Papa Bear" I grinned, leaning against the door frame._

_His mouth stretched out into an even wider grin than mine. _Your dad being glad to see you is a feeling that I would spend a good few years trying to replicate in the forms of shopping, Boxer-yogalates-size, the latest 'super food', the latest cocktails, the latest diet, occasional drug use...everything a Malibu trophy wife does with her day.

"_Bitsy Bear" he greeted, pulling me into a tight hug, "Whatcha doin' here?"_

"_Step-Dad's in jail, tax evasion. So Mama Bear checked her ass into rehab for 'stress' or some shit so I decided to come spend the summer with my favourite dad!"_

He looked taken aback and I did realise at the time that it was a lot to take in.

"_That's bull shit" he grinned, holding the door wide open for me like the gentleman he is, "I know you're crazy for your Dr Daddy"_

"_True but you are still my absolute favourite. It's like I love my Flyer but my Piranha's always gonna be my number 1"_

"_I assume that's a surfing thing" he laughed, closing the door behind him as we moved to the living room._

"_Oooo, gold star for you"_

"_Yeah, yeah. Now what's goin' on?"_

_I took a breath as I flopped down on the couch like a Raggedy Anne._

"_Turns out Step-Dad's so damn rich 'cus he doesn't pay taxes on all them boob jobs he's so damn good at"_

"_You should stash that sweet ride somewhere, IRS sees it it'll be the last you see of it" he said jerking a thumb towards the window referring to my as red as red could get 1966 Mustang._

"_You gave me that, they can't take it!"_

_He shrugged,_

"_You'd be surprised what 'The Man' can do my little lamb. So what's going on with Lenore?"_

"_She had a total meltdown at the bail hearing, it was, like, epic. Anyway she's gone to that 'spa' where you can score anything and everything. It got lonely quickly"_

"_So no bail for Step-Dad?"_

"_Nope, he's a flight risk"_

"_I gotta wonder, sweetheart, why spending the summer in this 'piece of shit nowhere town' beats hanging -10 with your board and your bro's"_

"_True, they're gonna be lost without the gnarliest quebee in all Orange Country but I thought it'd be cool to come here, spend some time with you Pre-College"_

_I didn't want to tell him that I'd been excommunicated from my crew for beating on what I thought was a Nicorico but turned out to be the Big Kahuna's little sister, we had a killabrenda over hacking. God, I used to sound like a fucking idiot back in the day, I still surf but I dropped the lingo a while back. Well, most of it, I'll still call Paddlepuss like I see it._

_I didn't want to tell him because it still hurt like hell, being rudely awakened to your actual position on the food chain. I was the Queen of Pepper Beach and I got treated like a Squid because Hounddog McQueen can't keep his eye on his little Sis, fucking Judith that she was! I mean I was out there on the Dawn Patrol and-_

_Know what? I'm still too mad about it to talk about it like a sane person, let's just drop it. My whole life was falling apart, I just didn't want to admit it._

"_So we got a decision out of you?"_

"_It's Cornell, there wasn't really a choice"_

"_I'm proud of you and all that shit but you really gotta go all the way cross country? Aren't you gonna miss surfing?"_

"_I'll live, I hope. And you're just gonna have to get me a really good Cell package"_

_I stood and sat on his lap, his arms wrapping themselves around me._

"_Don't get to see you enough as it is" he mumbled into my neck,_

"_I know, I hate that. Donovan's, like, my bud but he's not you" I whispered back._

"What are you doin' here?" snapped me out of my memory, he was awake.

"Hospital called me, I'm your 'next of kin' or whatever"

There was this long moment where neither of us dared to speak until he eventually asked why I'd come.

I shrugged,

"To see if you're ok?" I suggested,

"You care?" he said and I imagine that his eye brow would have gone all Zoolander if his face wasn't covered in bandages.

"Yeah, I care"

"Can't say I'd run to your bedside if I got word you'd been caught up in a porn studio fire"

"Oh bullshit, you know you would. I'm your only shot at a kidney...that we know of"

We were once again in a long stretch of silence.

"This is the most we've said to each other in 4 years"

I nodded. Yep, his last words to me were memorable though. I haven't been called a 'Spic fucking whore' since that night, like I said my life had been slowly falling apart for a while before but it had all been like a star dying, one final explosion finishing it off.

Kaboom.

I cut my visit for that day short, let it end on a reasonably amicable note but I'd be back tomorrow to see when I could spring him from that joint. It was so strange and ironic that their rooms were mere feet apart, the two men I have felt the most for in my entire life are, like, literally less than 40 feet apart and they don't even know it. I recognised him right away, I'd propped myself up and watched studied that face while he slept less than a hand full of times but I studied it so completely I'd know it anywhere. Had the door not been open I might have just walked past and never known he was there.

Jean Carlos Ortiz.

He broke my heart so fucking bad no one's ever been able to put it back together again.


	2. Chapter 2

I gotta be hallucinating, they must have put me back on morphine 'cus I could swear Isabelle Darby's standing in the doorway. Sure she's 5 years older and her hair's straight instead of the strawberry blonde spirals she had last time I saw her but I'd know that face anywhere. Her tits are bigger too, she said her step-dad was a surgeon and in jail but I don't know how that panned out for her. I could have found out easy enough but zero contact was better, the wound needed to heal.

Fuck, she'd been young. I've never been anyone's first time before and I'd loved it, watching her discover all the feelings and sensations her body could feel, hearing her make sounds she didn't know her voice was capable of, watching her hands curl themselves into the sheets... head tossed back...panting...moaning...screaming...

Am I getting hard? Yep, classy.

About as classy as a 17 year old trying to buy vodka in a rundown liquor store.

_I clocked the car as soon as I pulled onto the parking lot outside the small complex of stores. Whoever owned that 66 Mustang must have been up to their arm pits in pussy. I'm only ever up to my knees, even without this prospect cut. If I had my top rocker I'd be up to my neck, no doubt about it. But fuck knows if that'll ever actually happen, the look Clay gave me today let me know that I was on one of my last chances, that one false move and I'd find myself bumped down to hang around._

_The bell on the door jingled as I entered and my life altered forever._

_The first thing I noticed about her was her voice, her valley girl accent flowed through the store into my ears._

"_Seriously, why are you, like, being such a hard ass?" she said in this really light voice that made me think that she'd been told she's 'charming' once before and never forgotten it._

_When I finally saw her the first thing my eyes went to was her hair. The sun was setting and the dying beams of sunlight shone through the stores large glass window hitting various bottles making them light up like stained glass windows in a church. The strawberry blonde curls fell all about her head and around her skin that would later make me so fucking jealous of the sun because it got to kiss that flesh before I did. If it weren't for the short, tight Hawaiian print shorts and the probably O'Neil halter neck shirt I would have sworn there was some kind of divine being in town._

_The next thing was her ass, that was one tight, toned, perky pound of flesh that once I'd held it in my hands they'd feel empty holding anything else._

_I moved behind her, whisky in hand. It had been one of those days, the kind of day that was becoming more and more frequent since I'd realised my year was up and not a word had been said about patching me in. Each day that went past the possibility seemed more and more remote._

"_Kid, $50 is not worth losing my job when you go yakin to your pals that this is the place for highschool kids to get booze"_

"_I'm not in highschool and I'm not from around here, I, like, haven't got anyone to tell. So I'll leave this here" she said putting her middle and index finger on the note and slid it across the counter top towards the clerk, "while you turn around, I'll walk out of here with this and you have, like, plausible deniability or whatever. It's all real simple, want me to go over it again?"_

"_I want you to get out of my store and go find some other clerk to get fired, what's what I 'want'"_

_She gave this frustrated shrieking growl and stormed out, slamming the door behind her._

_I chuckled and handed a bill over to the poor guy._

"_Fucking kids" he grumbled, "I don't know who raises that kinda bitch but whoever they are they gotta be at least 90% fucked up"_

"_Probably" I admitted before leaving._

_Outside she was leaning against the door of the car I'd dubbed in my head as 'The Pussy Magnet', arms folded, probably trying to work out where next to hit. I didn't even mean to, I just kinda gravitated towards her._

"_That is one shiny car" I said after giving a low whistle._

_Her hand clenched around her keys, No doubt where she was from if a Hispanic guys talking to you about your car he's the valet or he's going to car jack you. No red vest= Car jacker. _

"_Yep, the shiniest" she said with a tight smile._

"_It's the 66, right?"_

"_It is"_

"_Gotta be a bitch to insure"_

"_I don't exactly take care of that"_

"_Yeah, 'course you don't"_

"_What's that supposed to mean?"_

"_Don't take this personally but you kinda seem like a princess"_

_She shrugged,_

"_Sure I am, I'm the Princess of Pepper Beach"_

"_And where the fuck is that?"_

"_The O.C , It's where all the beautiful people live"_

"_I can see that"_

_Her eyebrow twitched skywards and lips spread into a smirk._

"_Seriously? That's the best you got? I'm disappointed, you disappoint me"_

"_I'm hearing that a lot lately"_

"_Awww, did I hurt your feelings?"_

"_You did, you've wounded me. So do I get a name or what?"_

"_What do you need a name for?"_

"_Well when my friends ask me where my pride is I need to know who to say took it, or do I just say 'the princess of Pepper Beach'"_

"_You can call me Izzy"_

"_You can call me...Jean-Carlos. How old are you?"_

"_Not old enough to buy booze"_

"_But how old are you? If I go back in there and get what you want am I giving it to a 20 year old or someone I'd get into a crap load of trouble for?"_

"_I'm 18"_

_I didn't believe her, she kept a poker face but there was this glaze in her eyes, this 'shit, he's buying it, aren't I amazing' glint._

"_That's not quite true, is it?"_

"_Fine" she huffed, face crumbling, "I'm 18 in, like, two weeks"_

"_Nice try, almost had me"_

_No way I was buying liquor for a 17 year old, there are eyes all over this damn town, if it ever got back to Charming PD I'd find myself in a cell and frankly I don't think the club would come to my rescue._

_When I began to walk away to where I'd parked my bike I felt her following me._

"_So are you, like, a biker or whatever?" she said,_

"_Kinda"_

"_How can you 'kinda' be a biker? You either are or you aren't, you're either in Sons of Anarchy or you aren't, right?"_

"_What do you know about the Sons?" I asked, tossing a leg over my bike. She stood right next to me._

"_I know my dad told me to steer clear"_

"_And this is what 'steering clear' looks like?" I said, moving my index finger in the space between us._

"_This is what shootin' the shit with a nugget looks like"_

"_That some kind of slur?" I asked,_

"_No!" she gasped quickly, laughing, "'Nugget', it means, like, buff hottie"_

_My mouth twitched into a grin as I extended my right arm out and flexed for her. She folded her arms across herself in a gesture of shyness, like maybe this was getting a little out of control, that she hadn't meant to be SO flirtatious and talk about my body, it had just come out. Her eyes were hooded though, hypnotised really._

"_Wow, you could, like, paddle to Honolulu and back on those"_

"_You surf?"_

"_Yeah"_

"_Bet being on a board's given you some impressive muscles"_

_I shouldn't have but I reached out and grazed a thumb over her exposed bicep, it was hard but softened as her arms fell away from herself, stance completely open. It was the softest thing I'd ever felt._

_Then my brain started to function again and told me to stop touching the 17 year old booze hound._

"_Stay out of trouble kid, your jails a'int a thing like your Orange County facilities" I told her before starting up the bike and pulling away._

Fuck.

Isabelle Darby.

The little mafia princess herself. She'd been so close to it she couldn't even see what her dad was involved in. And I opened her eyes and showed her.

"What did you do to your head Jean Carlos?" she says finally.


End file.
